Whew! Busy man! Just a quick comment (maybe!) about requiring students to participate. For what ever reason (aside from Alfie Kohn’s theory) it seems as though the majority of students (and teachers) won’t try new things unless you make them! As a result we (those that see the value) have to nurture and guide the participation until the usefulness becomes more apparent. It is my first semester teaching at the university level during the regular school year and we are using classblogmeister for the blogging REQUIREMENT. Mainly for read, respond, generate discussion type of an activity. It is going well now…after 14 weeks. At first it seemed artificial, but now they are writing with more compassion and depth, commenting more frequently (although even then, I made commenting an “assignment” one week…) The good thing is that we have been having a running discussion about learning and intrinsic motivation that is needed to continue to learn and grow as professionals. (I teach preservice teachers.) So the requirements, which I wish weren’t necessary, have led us to a multi-dimensional discussion of teaching, learning, and the importance of discovering your own personal learning networks.

Good Luck this weekend!